In our final episode for season 6 Mitch and I decided to veer off course of our typical podcast. Instead of interviewing a designer, this time we interviewed a woman creating a documentary about the designer board gaming hobby. Without further ado, Ninja vs Pirates brings you our interview with Lorien Green about her upcoming documentary Going Cardboard. We discuss the hobby and how it has taken shape since its early days in Germany. We also discuss the difference between American style and German style board games.

In this episode we roll the dice to explore a game all about creating and discovering your own dungeon; bringing life to places that previously had none. Tony Dowler discusses his game, How to Host a Dungeon, which puts the player in the shoes of dungeon crafter utilizing dice tables (oh, we love those) to give the game an element of surprise. How to Host a Dungeon could be used to create dungeons for your own RPG crawls, but don't overlook the enjoyment of creating maps for the sake of creating them.

Roll the dice yourself to check out this fantastic single-player game.

In this episode we revisit the game of Fluxx, but focus on the genre specific versions with Andy Looney. We delve into the particulars about licensed products as well with some discussion of Monty Python Fluxx. Overall, there is a lot of fun information to learn from this episode, and for our regular listeners, who doesn't love hearing Andy Looney.

In this episode we discuss one of the new GURPS line titled Action! Sean discusses how this iteration of the GURPS system aims to bring the players into their very own action movie. We explore the ins and outs of the system as well as the influences that Sean sought to bring players such an exciting version of GURPS.

This next set of interviews is our second two-parter of the season. In this first part, we talk about GURPS Basic Set 4 with Sean Punch. We discuss the ins and outs of the GURPS system, and how the system has changed and adapted over the number of years it has been around. Focusing on 4th edition, Sean offers us a lot to think about concerning role-playing games that offer such a comprehensive system to its players.

In this episode we learn more about the well-known title from White Wolf/CCP with line editor, Justin Achilli. We discuss Vampires' place in the history of the role-playing genre, the focus on story telling, and its popularity as a live action event. Ultimately, we end the interview leaving the listeners with probably the most important question to consider for the future of the franchise: do vampires use twitter? This was an immensely fun interview.

Vampire the Masquerade is coming out with a 20th anniversary edition. You can learn more about it here and here.

This episode is the second part of our fantastic interview with Vincent Baker regarding his latest RPG, Apocalypse World. We discuss items from the game like the countdown clock and the GMing style that the game asks of its players.

*For those who downloaded part 1 and are dissatisfied with the audio quality (technical difficulties with using Skype as a communication tool), I am reposting a new version that will hopefully clear up as much of the audio as possible. The new version should be up later tonight (Sunday May 1) or tomorrow (May 2).

In this first-half episode we discuss the latest and one of the most exciting games from role-playing game designer extraordinaire, Vincent Baker. Apocalypse Worldis a futuristic world that puts the action in the players hand with a GM style that feeds off of the players own energy. We discuss the GM style of the game, the plethora of "playbooks" that a player may consider choosing and even why this game has rules that encourages characters to have sex with each other.

In this episode we discuss the first edition of Betrayal at the House on the Hill with designer Professor Bruce Glassco. Our talk revolves around the strong genre feel of the game, the complexities of designing games with multiple adventures, and the intrigues of games that are a mix between cooperate and competitive. We also learn that Bruce is a literature professor specializing in 19th Century American and British literature.

To learn more about the breadth of the Betrayal world or discuss the game with fans and the designer himself, follow this link to the Board Game Geek page for Betrayal.

During this episode we discuss Hoopla, a Cranium licensed game design by Forest-Pruzan Creative. Speaking with Alan Pruzan, one of the inventors of the game, we explore the intracacies of designing a game that is remarkably different from its license, but captures the same feeling of the licensed product. Our discussions range from the complexities of paring down a game with a larger scope to what Hoopla brings to the Cranium universe.

Look out for a copy of this game. It isn't easy to find, but you will be ecstatic when you do find it.

On Who, What, Why? we discuss game design with game designers and try to learn more about the game design process from the people who design games. Each episode we interview a designer of card games, board games, role playing games, or video games. We have both mainstream and independent developers as guests.